Greater Horsepower Requirement Satisfied

PR Eaton, Whitehouse farm, Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Maldon, Essex

The first Puma 195 delivered by Ernest Doe Power in October 2007 replaced an existing Case IH MX135. "We needed more horsepower to pull a Knights press," commented Mr Eaton. He added The tractor has jumped 10 years in advancements and technology with an extremely quiet efficient engine, and a cab that is second to none for comfort and reliability."

HIGH OUTPUT PLOUGH SUITS BLOCK CROPPING STRATEGY

Ploughing continues to play an important part in the profitable running of large arable farms in East Anglia, but one of the key priorities is to run a machine with sufficient capacity to deal with the hectic autumn workload.

Manor Farm at Horseheath in Cambridgeshire – part of the Thurlow Estate – extends to over 3,700 acres, the vast majority of which is down to arable production.

Convenient as it would be for this sizable portion of land to be in a ring fence this, unfortunately, is far from being the case.

One of the biggest challenges is organising the order of work on a number of isolated areas of land that can be several miles apart and even further away from the main farmstead. To simplify the situation and bring some uniformity to operations, crops in the rotation including oilseed rape, winter wheat, spring beans and winter barley tend to be grown in blocks

Approximately half the farm is ploughed each year - usually the land destined for second wheats and winter barley, and the winter bean aftermaths – to help control blackgrass. The downside, however, is that a lot of ploughing must be done in a relatively short time, and hence the need for a high capacity plough.

For the past four years a nine-furrow Kuhn Challenger semi-mounted plough supplied by Ernest Doe, Sudbury, has performed the task very well. The plough at Manor Farm is a version with five furrows in front of the articulation point and four behind it. Despite being a long implement, beam articulation allows the plough to follow ground contours. This configuration also allows the front section to be lifted at the headlands before the rear section – and vice-versa when the bout is re-started - so providing a more even end to the ploughed area.

The aim is to plough straight after harvest. Once the ground has weathered down a reasonable seedbed is virtually guaranteed – come rain or shine. Even when the ground has been very dry and hard, the plough still penetrates the surface – albeit with the auto-resets on the beams having to work overtime.

A 280hp Massey Ferguson tractor is used to pull the plough and, in most conditions, is considered to be a good match.

Furrow widths are set at 14in, rather 16in or 18in, which cuts down on the overall width slightly and reduces draft requirement, but also means the mouldboards do a better job of inverting the soil.

For such a long plough headland work is surprisingly efficient, as the headstock allows for angled turns of up to 110 degrees so that the tractor can loop round on full lock.

Under normal circumstances the 9-furrow Challenger will plough over 30 acres/day and in excess of 1,300 acres each year. After four years of use it remains very reliable.

HARDI, set apart from the competition

Its been a successful twelve months since Ernest Doe Power added the HARDI franchise to their product portfolio at Cereals 2007, with a number of types of sprayer being sold by the Fyfield, Sudbury and Framlingham branches.

Two of the first sprayers were sold by Tony Upton of Sudbury branch.  Both machines, Commander trailed sprayers, were delivered during January 2008 and installed within a day or two of each other                                         Pictured above: Richard Wrinch

The first purchased by R J & H W Wrinch of Hill House, Shotley.  A 3200 litre 24 meter Commander fitted with the heavy duty Force boom.

Richard Wrinch was looking to replace his existing trailed Case sprayer with a sprayer that was modern, well built, technically up to date and offered high capacity with simplicity of use.  I spray liquid fertilizer and therefore go through my crops a minimum of six times.  The HARDI Commander appeared to offer all of this, and I haven’t been disappointed explained Richard.  As well as the Commanders modern design and general build quality I was particularly impressed with the machines steering system.  The system articulates at the rear between the main tank and axle, which allows a 6m turning radius’ precise tracking and outstanding stability. 

Another feature that Richard comments on is the Commanders ChemFiller which uses a vortex system to pre mix chemicals before being transferred into the main tank, which is particularly efficient when using powders and granules.  The can wash is efficient and has a safety shut off which cuts off as soon as the trigger is released which has proven safer to use than on my previous machine.

The machine is straight forward and simple to operate, explains Richard, with features such as the EasyClean suction filter, positioned in the work zone, being of real importance to me as inevitably filters require attention and the EasyClean Filter can be removed and cleaned, with ease, even when the tank is full.  The integral dirt trap is great at trapping larger particles in the system.

For his liquid fertilizer applications Richard uses the HARDI Quintastream nozzle and finds that the variable pressures which he can operate the nozzles at doesn’t affect the individual streams ensuring a good pattern is maintained.

J B Fairly & Son of Kings Farm, Lower Kirby opted for a 4400 litre intelligent model Commander also fitted with the 24m Force boom.

 Having considered other brands of sprayers father and son John and Drew Fairly, carefully considered the build, design and specification.  John says the overall design of the machine and the unique steering system are features others could not offer and set the HARDI apart from the competition.   This was one of the most important aspects to John and Drew when making their decision.  Drew commented that the rear mounted 500 litre rinse tank provides good balance whilst the main tank design with the sump at the front, moving the contents forward, provides a good weight transfer to the tractor.  With the large rolling radius of the wheels the sprayer is easy to pull and exceptionally stable added John.

We opted for the "I" model (intelligent) which includes the HC6500 spray computer.  All the field functions are operated by joystick control which Drew claims is comfortable and easy to operate.  The specification of the I model includes PrimeFlow a pressurised circulation system which ensures the boom is purged ready to spray.  We find the sprayer is easy to unhook and swap from tractor to tractor with a single connection to the computer.  Both John and Drew agree this can then easily be mounted to a second tractor in minutes allowing a great deal of flexibility.

Hardi is a sprayer specialist manufacturer that offers a good back up service if required and we did indeed have a couple of teething troubles with our machine to which HARDI reacted promptly.

Both customers are confident of the support offered by Ernest Doe Power paying particular recognition of Tim from the Sudbury service dept.

Alpha Self Propelled Sprayer